Tag Archives: recycling

Using found objects to make art is a great way to stretch your imagination. It involves taking materials designed for one purpose and using them for another. One of the most famous examples is Pablo Picasso’s Bull’s Head, made from a bicycle saddle and handlebars. It’s such a simple and humorous idea, but someone had to think of it. The challenge here is to make a robot sculpture using only found objects in metal. Let the games begin!

Earlier this summer, I suggested spending some time hunting and gathering outdoors to collect items for future arts and crafts projects. This is one of those projects where you’ll be able to make use of your treasures. Many of your gathered items are typically found on the ground, only to be stepped on or tossed in the compost pile, so you may be surprised to see how this blending of nature and imagination can create some really interesting garden art.

When you consider Picasso’s body of work, three dimensional pieces in sand don’t usually come to mind. So this turned out to be a surprising discovery I made when visiting the Musée National Picasso in Paris a few years ago. Click on the link and select ‘oeuvre en 3 dimensions’ to have a look at the other seven works in this series, and for inspiration to make your own version. Here’s a quote from Picasso which nicely explains why we shouldn’t be surprised by his explorations:

“When you come to think of it, I am probably a painter without style. ‘Style’ is often something that ties the artist down and makes him look at things in one particular way, the same technique, the same formulas, year after year, sometimes for a whole lifetime. You recognize him immediately, for he is always in the same suit, or a suit of the same cut. There are, of course, great painters who have a certain style. However, I always thrash about rather wildly. I am a bit of a tramp. You can see me at this moment, but I have already changed, I am already somewhere else. I can never be tied down, and that is why I have no style,” Picasso wrote. (http://www.abcgallery.com/P/picasso/picassobio.html)

While I’m all for encouraging everyone to create, storage is another matter. Picasso may have been one of the most prolific artists of his time, but he had a steady stream of buyers to cart off his work. Toddlers, on the other hand, are not so lucky. I have every intention of hanging on to a selection of my children’s work; a manageable representation of the stages they went through, which leaves us with THE REST. While I have no problem purging and moving forward, they tend to freak out when witnessing their macaroni-embellished paper plate being tossed. Discretion is key. Language is key. Take the word recycled, for instance. “Where did my black and red wooden sculpture with nails that I made last year at day care go?” When faced with such inevitable queries, one can simply reply “I recycled it honey.” At this point a big smile and distraction are in order, unless you intend to explain what that overused word really means. One more tip. I highly recommend the ‘temporary-holding-zone’, where things to be ‘recycled’ are piled in a corner for a certain period of time (works well for husbands too). If cobwebs start to form, or paper becomes an agar substitute for growing mould, you can safely throw it out. Anyone asking for it wouldn’t have wanted it anyway.